CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA LEE URGES PRESIDENT BUSH TO SUPPORT THE KYOTO PROTOCOL AND TO TAKE THE LEAD ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Washington, DC - Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Ranking Member on the
House International Relations Subcommittee on Europe, along with 11 of their colleagues, sent a letter to President Bush urging
him to improve rather than reject the Kyoto Protocol and encouraging the Administration to take a leadership role in promoting
environmental progress.
The United States is the largest producer of fossil-fuel generated
CO2 emissions in the world. European leaders and others have
strongly condemned President Bush's declaration that the Kyoto Protocol
on Global Warming is "dead." In addition to the
long-term effects on the climate itself, the apparent U.S. withdrawal
from the principles of the Kyoto Protocol and the Framework
Agreement is having a dire impact on U.S. relations with Europe.
Moreover, the failure of the United States to take the lead in
this issue will decrease incentives among industrializing nations to
limit emissions or seek out cleaner power sources.
"We must send a strong message to the President and the country that Congress will hold Mr. Bush to his campaign pledge,
that it recognizes that global warming poses grave dangers to our
environment, our economy, and our national security, and that
this country must reduce its CO2 emissions," said Lee. "We cannot
abandon our national and international commitments to a
cleaner environment."
The letter was signed by Reps. Faleomaveaga (D-AS), Delahunt (D-MA), Wexler (D-FL), McKinney (D-GA), Blumenauer (D-OR),
Lantos (D-CA), Berman (D-CA), Napolitano (D-CA), Crowley (D-NY), Menendez (D-NJ), and Ackerman (D-NY).
Representatives Lee, Hastings and Menendez are co-authors of a forthcoming amendment to H.R. 1646, the State Department
Authorization Bill, which emphasizes the dangers of global warming and the need for immediate action to make reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions and to complete negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol.
Congresswoman Lee also recently introduced H. Res. 117, the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions and Global Climate Change
Act of 2001, which expresses the sense of Congress that the U.S. should develop, promote and implement policies to reduce
emissions of fossil fuel generated carbon dioxide with the goal of achieving stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions in the
United States at the 1990 level by the year 2010.
The Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions and Global Climate Change Act has over forty original co-sponsors and has been
endorsed by the National Environmental Trust, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, the World Wildlife Fund,
CALPIRG, the Union of Concerned Scientists, NETWORK, the National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, Physicians for Social
Responsibility, and the Sierra Club.
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